Union - a sequel to Love Letter
by elspeth20
Summary: From the TLD saga, Union - and Love Letter, its prequel - can stand on their own, but are enriched with the rest of the saga! Elsa and Odette brave death and danger in their valiant fight against darkness, and they've fallen in love along the way. Union follows the moments where they're been brought closest together. Advisory: non-explicit sexual content and brief strong language.
1. Chapter 1

Union

a sequel to Love Letter

and

a Trials of Light and Darkness story

xxx

Chapter One

* * *

City Center,

Arendelle

April 3rd, 1843

Elsa Siguror stepped into a little flower shop under the eaves of new tenements, followed by a pair of plainclothes guards. She was getting used the familiar specter of their presence, but she didn't enjoy them any more than she did last October. They were stifling, constantly breathing down her neck and making her feel like an animal trapped in a cage. Besides, after how she'd handled herself during the violence in Corona and the revolution afterwards, one would think that her advisors would realize that she was fully capable of protecting herself. Besides, they made her even more conspicuous than she already was. She couldn't go anywhere in the city without setting herself loudly apart anymore.

Sure enough, the store's few patrons looked up with surprise, and continued to stare as Elsa did her best to try to casually approach the counter. Elsa normally didn't mind being the center of attention, but with the guards, she always felt self-conscious. They made her seem weak, or even worse, distant. If there was one thing about Agnarr's rule that Elsa didn't want to mimic, it was the way he seemed to revel in being better than his fellow men. The 'Divine Right of Kings,' he'd called it.

The woman behind the store's little counter visibly gulped as Elsa approached.

"Her majesty! It is an honor!" She quickly bowed her head.

"That is very kind of you," Elsa said, smiling and inclining her own head slightly. She'd learned long ago that it was futile to do anything but accept the deference of her subjects. It seemed to make them _more_ uncomfortable if she insisted that they treat her normally, for some reason.

"What does her majesty require?" The woman said, still stubbornly refusing to meet Elsa's gaze.

Elsa smiled tightly. "I saw a bouquet of roses in the window –"

"If her majesty would like them, then it would be my honor to give them to her!" The woman said excitedly.

"Oh, that won't be necessary," Elsa said. "I'd like to purchase them, however."

The flower woman flushed. "That is very kind of her majesty!"

Elsa fought the urge to sigh. "Nonsense. It is my great pleasure."

She glanced towards one of her guards. "McMaster?"

The tall man stepped over and produced several notes from a pocketbook, probably overpaying by a fair amount. Elsa thanked the woman, and they were on their way.

xxx

 _It's no wonder why they're all afraid of me,_ Elsa thought to herself as her carriage rolled along the cobblestones towards the late Namar Sadden's manor. Even in the long months that had passed since the palace had been sacked, Elsa still couldn't bring herself to think of this place as home. She wondered if she ever would.

 _I don't even carry my own money around._ She drummed her fingers along the sill of the carriage window, gazing out into the scarred streets. The city was rising from the ashes, but it was taking time. She wondered idly if it would be ready for Anna and Kristoff's wedding in a month.

 _They'd sort of be right,_ she thought. After all, Elsa earned no salary. She _did_ work, but it was different work than common people would do, and even then, if she decided to give up and delegate all of her tasks, she wouldn't exactly start missing meals. There was also the whole business with the ancient sword of prophecy that had been entrusted to her and the Words of the Protector that she was supposedly destined to learn. But that was beside the point.

She looked down at the bouquet of roses held in a vase at her lap and suddenly wondered if it had been a stupid idea to get them. It felt like a rather childish thing to do, like a teenager's clumsy attempt at romance. Did Odette even like flowers? Elsa didn't know. Even if she did, what if she hated roses? Elsa flushed.

 _Dammit._ She was so new to this. She always felt clumsy, and awkward. Self-conscious, in a way that she never did anywhere else. She and Odette weren't even serious, yet, for whatever that meant. They'd kissed, a few times, and spent a lot of time together, and Elsa thought that they were probably implicitly 'together,' but Elsa didn't really dare approach the subject with Odette due to an irrational fear of rejection.

She took a deep breath and looked out the window again, surprised to see that they were already approaching the manor. _Stop acting like a child,_ she thought to herself, annoyed by how weak her thoughts seemed. _You are a queen, and a powerful wizard, and it's about time you started taking control of your own destiny._

 _xxx_

Elsa knew that Odette would probably be in the library. Namar Sadden had owned an unsurprisingly extensive collection of books, one that easily exceeded that which Agnarr had possessed. Agnarr hadn't been much of a reader, and most of the leather-bound volumes that had burned during the palace's sacking had been dusty, stuffy things. But Namar Sadden had been an academic man, and his books were frequently loved. They were interesting, too: rare biographies, of ancient rulers that Elsa had never heard of, historical tales of great wars and mighty kingdoms, and a fair number of novels, too, some of them among the oldest ever written.

Elsa stopped at the threshold of the room, gazing fondly in at Odette Marie Novare. She sat facing slightly away from the door, at a small table almost comically covered with piles of books and sheets of paper scribbled with the loose shorthand that Odette took notes in. She was looking for something in them, though Elsa doubted that she would ever find it. Namar Sadden had fallen to the service of a great and supernatural evil towards the end of his life, and Odette suspected that she might be able to find information that would help them in their fight against that evil, somewhere in this library.

Elsa figured that it was just a bunch of old books. Interesting ones, perhaps, but books nonetheless.

 _God, she's pretty,_ Elsa thought to herself, leaning against the doorframe and idly reaching up to play with the end of her braid as she watched Odette. The girl's large, wire glasses had slid down her nose, as she pored over a page, and she unconsciously pushed them back up and tucked a loose strand of her deep brown hair behind her ear. Odette had a lot of hair, and it was very thick; the bun that she often wore at the back of her head was large, and sloppily made today. Odette had beautiful hair, but a combination of her frenetic work ethic and her own stylistic preferences rarely led her to do anything with it.

Elsa liked that. It was endearing, the way that Odette didn't seem to realize that she was … entrancing.

Her eyebrows suddenly shot up, and she absently reached over for a scrap of paper as she placed her index finger against the lines that she was interested in. She twisted the paper around to herself, and then dipped a pen and quickly began to scrawl on to the page.

Elsa smiled, and sighed. Then she realized that she was acting like an obsessed schoolgirl. She blinked, and shook her head.

 _Well, no matter, I'm the queen. I can act however the hell I want._

"Hi," Elsa said, knocking twice softly on the open door.

Odette glanced up, surprised, and then smiled radiantly. "Hey! I haven't seen you all day. How was it downtown?"

Elsa stepped inside. She'd had a servant deliver the roses to Odette's bedroom already, so it was empty-handed that she walked over and sat down across from Odette.

"Well, you know how it is," Elsa said, shrugging. "I'm still not too pleased about having two extra shadows all of the time."

Odette smiled sympathetically. "I hear you. But hey; things have really calmed down here since January. You might be able to convince 'the mystical powers that be' that you don't need them anymore soon."

Elsa smiled, but both of them knew that Odette was really just offering a platitude. The reason that she'd first been given an increased security detail in the first place – an assassination attempt on her life last October – wasn't an incident in isolation. Her problems weren't just going to disappear now that Namar Sadden's ambitions for the throne had been stamped out. There was still an even greater enemy lurking beyond Arendelle's borders, seemingly content to bide its time for now. They were all doing their best to prepare for the storm to come.

After all, Odette wasn't chasing after phantom threads in Namar Sadden's library for academic pleasure alone.

But for now, life still went on much as it had before all this began.

"But yeah, the ribbon cut just fine," Elsa said.

She hadn't been downtown simply to shop for flowers, of course. Given the many buildings that had been partially or severely damaged during the revolution, Arendelle in recovery was a flourishing market for construction. Elsa had been performing her duties as a dignitary this morning, christening a new shipyard that had just months before been a footprint of ash, razed by the invading forces who'd wanted to limit seafaring travel into and out of the little nation.

"In all seriousness," Elsa said, "I'm pretty proud of how well this city has been recovering. In a month, you won't even be able to tell what happened."

"We're Mending it," Odette said absently, shuffling some papers around. Then she looked up. "Well, I'm glad to hear it. At least you've managed to get something done today."

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, straightening one of the piles of notes that lay before her. "It looks like you've been doing plenty!"

Odette reached back and undid her bun, letting her hair tumble down around her shoulders. Then she raked her hands through her hair for a few moments and began to re-twist it. She abruptly laughed.

"My head was itchy. Um, I don't know, I just don't think that any of this stuff is actually that useful," she said. Then she glanced over at the clock on the wall and fit a bookmark into the hefty tome that she had open before her. "Anyway. I was about done here."

 _Now's your chance,_ a voice inside Elsa seemed to say. _Go for it!_

"Perfect!" Elsa said, forcing some confidence into her voice. "Let me take you to dinner."

Odette blushed slightly and grinned. "Okay! Yeah, let's do it."

xxx

Thirty minutes later, Elsa and Odette sat at a private table in a fancy French restaurant just a few blocks away from the makeshift palace. The room around them was surprisingly full, another anecdotal piece of evidence that Arendelle's economy was recovering well from the late turbulence. Some of Elsa's economic advisors had been worried that people wouldn't be spending as much money once the city re-stabilized out of fear that more hardship would come. These advisors told her that, paradoxically, people expecting economic hardship in the future might bring it on themselves if they weren't spending money.

A stiff waiter approached the table and deposited their orders before bowing and departing.

"Anyway," Odette was saying, "that's more or less it, I think. It's not that the university here has a political science school that's _particularly_ renown – don't get me wrong, it's good, but just that wasn't it – it's just that my tutor and Jean-Baptiste Clement knew each other, and Father Clement is in admissions, so he was able to get me in off of my tutor's recommendation."

Odette wasn't fromArendelle – she was from a little French village near Marseilles, in southern France. She'd only moved to the little island comparatively recently, four years ago, when she'd been recommended to Lannister University in Arendelle for study in political science. How she'd ended up going from a fresh-faced young graduate, to one of the closest people to Arendelle's queen, was often a subject of gossip among those in Arendelle's 'in crowd.' Who was this young lady, and what was she after? How did she manage to break down Queen Elsa's icy façade? There were even scandalous rumors beginning to bloom that perhaps they were romantically entwined.

"Well, I'm glad that you ended up here," Elsa said, taking a bite of gougère. "My father always told me that one day I'd end up going to the university for a formal education, but, well, I became queen quite a bit younger than anyone anticipated."

Odette smiled sadly. "I'm sorry that you lost the opportunity. I lost my parents when I was eleven, so I can relate to the pain."

Odette hadn't spoken about her parents before.

"What happened to them? If you don't mind me asking?" Elsa said curiously.

Odette frowned, and didn't speak for a few long moments. "There was… violence, in the south of France, stuff that would eventually build up into the French Revolution of 1832. A bad man killed my parents. I don't like to talk about it much."

Elsa got the sense that Odette wasn't saying something, but she was too shocked by the girl's response to probe any deeper. "Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that."

Odette smiled again, sipping at her onion soup and shaking her head. "Don't be. I… I'll tell you some day, probably. There's happier things to talk about now."

Elsa nodded, and then tried to think about something happier to change the subject too. Everything was so stressful these days. Even the things that should be joyful, like the new public works sector that Elsa had created to do great things like build schools for children, brought with them unpleasant things like bureaucracy, or the depleted Arendane treasury. Big problems, for big discussions. Not for an idle conversation, between two friends.

"Anna finally picked a designer," Elsa said, recalling a conversation she'd had with er sister that very morning.

"Oh?" Odette said, eyebrows shooting up, breaking into a broad grin. "Who'd she settle on?"

Elsa tapped her chin. "Let's see, what was his name… he was a German guy, actually, I figured she'd pick somebody local, but I've seen his designs, and I suppose that they just appeal to her – they're really simple dresses. Frienberg. I think."

"That's fantastic!" Odette said. "Wow, I can't believe their wedding is coming so fast! Anna must be so excited."

"Tell me about it," Elsa said, laughing and rolling her eyes. "She's getting to be insufferable. But in a good way. You know? I suppose this is what having siblings is always supposed to be like. That's what I'm told."

"I'd have no idea," Odette said, smiling. Odette was an only child.

 _We're so alike, in some ways,_ Elsa thought.

"But yes, she talks about the wedding a lot," Elsa said, smiling. "And she showed me some sketches from this designer, and they're all very beautiful. I think he's going to have a field day with her."

Odette smiled dreamily. "I've never been to a wedding before," she said. "I'm excited. It all sounds so beautiful."

"Oh!" Elsa said, abruptly recalling something that she'd been meaning to bring up with Odette for a few days now but hadn't gotten the chance to do. "By Siguror tradition, the bridesmaids are young ladies from the royal family. There's um, only two of us left, however, and Anna's getting married, so…"

Elsa realized the magnanimity of what she was going to say to Odette. She was practically asking Odette to become part of the family. _This is a goddamn marriage proposal, isn't it?_

She trailed off, eyes widening.

"Elsa?" Odette said, brow wrinkling.

Elsa shook her head and plowed onwards. "So I was going to ask you to be a bridesmaid, as well. The Coronan royal family will be coming to the wedding, of course, so with Rapunzel added, that will make three of us. I think that's a fine enough number."

Odette's eyes widened. "Be a bridesmaid? Oh, gosh, I mean… I mean, I'd love to, but I just – I'm nobody. I don't have noble blood."

"You're not nobody," Elsa immediately said. "You're a friend of the crown. My closest advisor, my personal friend. Kings of old were always giving titles and privilege to their personal friends. Well, maybe it's about time we give you an acre of land out in the foothills and name you Lady of Something-or-Other."

Odette laughed, and then Elsa laughed. Odette raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure we could come up with a title far more ridiculous than that. And thanks, Elsa, but I don't mind being just ordinary Odette. But I'll take you up on being a bridesmaid, if you think that it wouldn't cause any political trouble. I'd be honored."

Elsa grinned. "Awesome."

xxx

Later that evening, they were back in the palace. They'd slowly wandered their way back to Odette's chamber, and by now Elsa had completely forgotten about the roses from earlier. The conversation was dying down now, despite the fact that neither of them really seemed to want it to; there simply didn't seem to be anything else to talk about. Which was ridiculous, of course; Elsa could think of a dozen different things that she would have _liked_ to say to Odette, but she just couldn't bring herself to say them.

"Well, I had a really good time tonight, Elsa," Odette said, looking up slightly to meet Elsa's gaze. "I mean, I always do."

 _No!_ Elsa thought to herself. _This can't be where the night ends!_ _Say something smooth to her!_

"Um, me too," Elsa said.

 _No, you dumb fuck!_

Odette shifted from one foot to the other. "Well, I suppose I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

Elsa's mind seemed sluggish. Unresponsive. "I hope so," she said.

Odette stepped up onto her tiptoes and kissed Elsa, lightly, before turning to open her door and head back into her room. She stepped behind her door and looked around it at Elsa, smiling.

"Good night, Elsa."

"'night, Odette," Elsa said, hating herself as she turned and started to walk away, embarrassed by her own ineptitude. She'd gone no more than three steps, however, before Odette shouted.

"Wait!"

Elsa whipped around, startled. Her fingertips were cold, magic dancing between them. But Odette rushed back into the hall, grabbing Elsa's arm and dragging her over the threshold and into the room. Elsa turned and she saw the vase upon Odette's vanity table.

 _Oh, wow, funny how I forgot about those._

"Are these from you?" Odette asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah, about that," Elsa began, but Odette threw her arms around Elsa again and kissed her.

"They're beautiful," Odette said, pulling back and gazing up at Elsa with her large, liquid eyes. "Thank you. Whatever the occasion is, thank you."

Elsa glanced back at the open door. The hallway beyond was deserted. Elsa didn't have any work appointments later this the night (which was unfortunately becoming more and more common these days, with all of the extra committees and initiatives that Elsa was working on), and there wasn't anyone expecting her. Odette's reaction to her gift emboldened her, and Elsa extricated herself from Odette's arms and walked over to close the door.

She turned back. "There's no occasion," she said. "I just saw them in the window of the shop when we were driving by, and I decided that I wanted to give them to you. I… uh, I know that you probably know this by now, Odette, but I like you."

Even if Elsa's words sounded stupid to her own ears, Odette didn't seem to consider them as much. She blushed deeply. Elsa felt a strange out-of-body feeling, the sort that came from unpremeditated instinct guiding what she said. She wasn't thinking anymore, just speaking.

"Do you remember the victory celebrations that we held, back in February?"

"Of course," Odette said. Elsa had stepped very close to her now, close enough to feel something electric between them.

"Couples were dancing in the great hall," Elsa said, softly, looking down at Odette's hands. "I wanted to ask you to dance. I wanted to move with you, feel the closeness of your heartbeat."

She reached down and took Odette's hands, slowly raising them up and sliding one around her shoulder. She slid her hand down to Odette's waist.

"But I didn't ask you, because I was worried about stupid things. Politics. I was worried what it might look like. What people might say."

Before Elsa could even start to move herself, Odette began to sway, and they fell into rhythm with each other.

"That was a horrible mistake," Elsa said softly as Odette turned and put her head against Elsa's breast and shoulder. "I should have asked you to dance."

They swayed and stepped in turn, drawing each other closer here and there, for some time. It might have been a minute, or it might have been thirty. It was wonderful.

Finally, Odette drew back, and rubbed her lips against Elsa's neck, and then stepped back to look into her eyes. Elsa wondered if the night was over. If they were done.

"I want you to take me," Odette said, voice barely more than a whisper.

Elsa's hearbeat fluttered.

"I want you to make love to me," Odette continued. "I want to give myself to you, completely. I want to be entwined with you."

She was practically gasping by the end. Elsa leaned down to kiss her, and they clumsily stumbled towards the bed. Odette landed on her back, and her eyes gleamed with excitement as Elsa climbed on top of her and kept kissing her.

"I… I don't know what to do," Elsa said, nervously. "I've never done this before."

"Don't worry," Odette whispered. "I'll tell you where to touch me."

Elsa had never felt anything so wonderful in her life.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

A thousand apologies for going AWOL on you, dear reader! I had university finals and then some holiday craziness to get through, but we're back on schedule now! Union will wrap up next Monday, on Christmas Eve, for those of you who celebrate, and then we'll be back on track with Immortal. Thanks for sticking with the story.

Also, I noticed that I'd labeled this story Romance/Humor, and in hindsight that seems like an odd arrangement, so I've re-sorted it to Romance/Hurt-Comfort. I think that makes more sense.

xxx

Chapter Two

* * *

Gustav Johannessen's shop,

Arendelle

December 25th, 1843

More than eight months had passed since that night in April when Odette had given herself to Elsa, but she found herself thinking about it again as the portly tailor tapped on her arms to get her to raise them again. He was a caricature of a man, fifty years old and disarmingly charismatic, prone to wearing powdered wigs although they had not been the style among anyone save the judiciary for decades, now. Gustav Johannessen was constantly in motion, making small _tsk_ noises to himself as he inspected the seams on the dress that Odette wore. Somewhere in the distance, a bell began to toll the hour. It was ten in the morning.

Odette looked at her reflection in the floor-length mirror in front of her. Her hair was tied back in a bun – she was to see the hairdresser in an hour when Gustav was done with her – and her face was devoid of makeup, a comparatively plain topper to the brilliant dress that she wore.

 _Is it in good taste for this dress to be white?_ She thought to herself. It's not like anyone would know, although anyone who lived in the imperial palace with them knew that she and Elsa shared a room.

"You may lower your arms now, dear," Gustav said, and she dropped them. The man then moved behind her and sniffed. "Lower the blouse."

Odette tried to smother her embarrassment as she slid her arms out of the filmy, gossamer sleeves and exposed her chest. After all, she was wearing a corset that covered practically her entire torso, anyway. But she was shy. She always envied the way that other women like Kariena Tae could be so comfortable in their own skin. No matter how many times Elsa told Odette that she was beautiful, it didn't change the way Odette's cheeks got hot when she could feel people's eyes on her figure.

Gustav tugged at one of the laces of the corset, then _tsk_ -ed to himself, then pulled at another. Odette glanced up towards the ceiling and tried to occupy her mind elsewhere, but then another person walked into the room. It was a teenage girl that Odette knew to be Gustav's apprentice. The girl had the decency to blush when she saw that Odette was indecent, but she walked over to her employer nonetheless.

"Master Johannessen?" she said to him. Her voice had a demure cast, the kind that ladies in service often had. It reminded Odette of her mother's voice, she realized.

"Yes?" Gustav said, without turning. "What is it, Peonie?"

"There is a man here to speak to the client," she said in a whisper.

Odette forgot her embarrassment and started to worry. A man? Here to see her? What had happened? She could never be too far from fear, in these dangerous days. Had someone been killed? Even worse, what if London or Corona had been attacked? Was Arendelle prepared to defend?

Gustav sighed dramatically. "Well, I vastly prefer to work with my clients when they are undistracted, but I can appreciate that our dear Odette is required to remain on the clock at all times. Show him in, Peonie."

The girl scurried out.

"You brave people and your heroics," Gustav said to her. "Never taking the time to sit down and have yourself a glass of wine. This corset, it is terrible craftsmanship."

Odette frowned. "All respect, Gustav, but I think that you're the one who made it."

"Of course I did! A man who cannot be critical of his own workmanship is a man who is delusional about his craft. I refuse to let you wear it to your own wedding."

"I mean, if it's underneath the dress I think that it won't be –"

"Of course it will be a big deal!" Gustav cut her off. "I could tell that the laces weren't aligned correctly underneath the dress! You must take it off."

Odette blushed again. "Here?"

Gustav motioned towards a dressing screen. "Please. Disgrace yourself no longer. Luckily, when I took your measurements Peonie and I had three of each of your garments made. I suspected that this might be an issue. You must have ended up with one of the backup corsets by mistake. I will go fetch you the most beautiful one."

Odette bit her lip, but she stepped off of the little futon before the mirror and behind the screen, and she began to do as she was told. A moment later, she heard footsteps, and then Peonie's voice.

"Yes, sir they're right in here – hmm. At least, they were in here a second ago."

"I still am," Odette said from behind the screen, fumbling with the laces at the back of her corset and trying to fight down her embarrassment. No one could see her back here. "Who is it with you?"

"It's me," said Hans.

"Oh, hi, Hans," Odette said, managing to work herself out of the fabric. She heard more footsteps, and Gustav came back into the room.

"Oh, hello, you handsome young man. I expect that you are here to tell me that Odette must be spirited away to save the world before she gets married in three hours?"  
Gustav's hand passed around the edge of the screen, and Odette snatched the corset from him. She was surprised to find that it indeed was more ornate than the one before, because even that one had seemed unnecessarily ostentatious. Odette had grown up poor, and to her all this lace and silk still seemed alien. She quickly shoved her arms through their proper holes and reached around her back to start tying herself back in.

Hans chuckled. "Oh, no, nothing quite so serious, though I must admit that I'm here for business, not pleasure. Call me Hans, by the way."

"As it always is with men like you," Gustav said, though his voice was devoid of malice. "I know your type."

Hans chuckled again. "Odette?"

"I'm here," she said, fumbling with the laces. Why did they make these things so damned hard to get into? "What is it, Hans?"

"Well, that's the thing," he said. She could picture him scratching at his auburn beard. "I wouldn't have believed it myself, if I hadn't spoken to the messenger. But it seems that word of England's recent entrance into our empire has spread among the rest of Europe."

Odette started working the dress itself back on. Her mind whirled. Of course the information would spread like wildfire, but Odette had been hoping that they would at least have time to head off the speculation with an official statement from the Unified Empire, drafted together with Anna and Sir Robert Peel's hands. It would have been a show of unity, and it would have helped to dissuade fears of a new Napoleonic force sweeping through the west.

"Alright, give me the worst of it," Odette said, finally putting her glasses back on and stepping out from behind the dressing screen. Hans looked at her, and his eyes widened slightly. He whistled.

"Very fine work you've done, Mr. Johannessen."

Odette blushed again and glanced down at her arms, clad in sparkly, insubstantial silk.

"Thank you, Hans. The dress is one of my finest creations, though I humbly submit that it would not look half as radiant without such a woman to fill it as our lovely Odette."

Odette cleared her throat. "The, um, the bad news, Hans."

She hadn't stuttered when she was speaking for a long time – at least since she'd started to gain confidence with her powers. She couldn't quite put on a finger on why she'd been so consistently embarrassed today, though it probably had something to do with the way that she wilted under the center of attention.

"Oh, there's no bad news," Hans said, sounding somewhat surprised. "No, it's actually very good news. We received a delegation from France late last night, and another from Austria just this morning. Both of them are asking us to establish portals in their countries. They want in."

Odette blinked. She certainly hadn't expected that, but even now it was starting to make sense to her. England was probably the most powerful country in the world. Its empire was expansive, its naval fleet was powerful, and its currency was honored everywhere under the sun. If they had agreed to enter the Unified Empire, it would suddenly seem to a great many nations in Europe and around the world that it was perhaps wise to follow suit. After all, this is why they had sent Hans to London in the first place, a month ago. They'd set their sights high because they knew it was a shot worth taking.

"That's… that's good," she said, aware that her response sounded weak, but not really knowing what else to say. "That's very good."

She wanted to sink down into a chair and rub her face. Their plan was finally starting to come together. For the first time since that horrible night in New York City last summer when all hope had seemed lost, it felt like they were finally starting to get things under control. They had their feet underneath them again.

Hans smiled and walked across the room, clasping her shoulder. "Anyway. That's all I wanted to let you know. You've got a big day today, and far be it from me to keep you longer."

He was casting a sidelong glance at Gustav as he spoke, who was beginning – despite his good humor – to grow impatient to move on with his ministrations over Odette's dress.

"Yes, yes, we'll all have time to celebrate the new members of our growing family in time," Gustav said, nodding to Hans and beginning to usher him towards the door, "but you'll forgive me if I have something more important to worry about for the time being. There is art in progress here."

Hans smirked, shot a last glance at Odette, and swept out of the room, leaving her to be fretted over by the tailor some more.

xxx

Elsa and her sister stood on a snowy hillock not far from the city. It was a solemn place, with a grey sky overhead and gentle drifts of powder around them. Little headstones yearned towards the sky, placed in orderly rings that moved down the slope into the rest of the cemetery. Nearby, there was an entrance into the hill itself, which served as an underground tomb for most of Anna and Elsa's ancestors. At least, it had – during the revolution, Namar Sadden had exhumed their ancestors in an attempt to find trace magic in the bones of Elsa's forebears.

Of course, there hadn't been any. The young women stood before a larger stone, a black monolith inscribed with Latin words. Elsa couldn't read Latin, but she knew that the obelisk identified her mother and father as having passed in the year 1836, lost at sea with no earthly remains. They were succeeded by their two daughters, Princess Anna and the heir incumbent, Princess Elsa. It quoted a favorite bible verse of their father's, although Elsa could no longer remember which one. She supposed that if she wanted to, she'd be able to figure it out from the numbers on the stone.

A few feet away from their parents' memorial was a smaller headstone, the grave planted with flowers that had been destroyed by the snow. It was Kristoff's resting place, newer than the other stones around it, not yet weathered by winters of exposure. The sisters each wore a black band around their arms.

"You know," Anna said softly, "If I haven't looked at a painting of her recently, I can't call mom's face to mind, anymore. It's easier with dad, because of the moustache, but… I don't know."

Elsa glanced at her sister and wrapped an arm around her, letting Anna lean into her side.

"I just… I don't really want them to be gone," Anna said. "But I hardly even feel anything anymore, you know? It doesn't hurt the way that it used to. I mostly think that when I think about them these days, I feel guilty that I don't mourn them anymore."

"It's okay, Anna," Elsa said. "It's been more than seven years now. These things happen, with time."

Anna's voice choked. "I'm scared that it's going to happen with Kristoff, too."

Elsa felt a gnawing pit in her stomach, the same as she always did when she thought about the man her sister had loved and lost. Elsa was consumed with guilt, that she should be so blessed with love, even as her sister mourned the father of her unborn child. What made fate such a cruel mistress?

"No," Elsa said softly. "No, it's not going to happen. Because you'll have the baby. No matter what they look like, you're going to be able to see part of _him_ in them. The child will always carry their father with them, and you'll love them not only as a mother does, but as a person holding on to what their lover left behind."

Elsa glanced down and noticed that silent tear-tracks had begun down Anna's face. Elsa fought back her own tears. Seeing Anna cry always made her hurt. She should have been able to protect Anna from this. She'd been worlds away when Kristoff died, and sometimes she found that she blamed herself for his death. Maybe if she'd been there, she could have done her duty and Protected him, the way she did all the others. If she'd been a bit faster, defeating their enemies at the Worldgate –

Anna wiped at her face, and then looked up at Elsa with glistening eyes. "I'm happy for you," she said, and Elsa could tell that she meant it. "I'm so, so happy for you. Before Odette, I sometimes wondered to myself if you'd ever find someone who was really _right_ for you. You know what I mean."

Elsa smiled. She, too, had once thought that she'd be alone forever. She hadn't really feared the thought, but it had been melancholy, nonetheless. Suddenly, Elsa realized that the same fate was now destined for Anna, and she felt another pang of empathetic sorrow.

"I could tell," she whispered, smiling softly to herself. "Probably before you even wanted to admit to yourself that you wanted her, I could tell. I could see the way that you looked at her, and whenever we talked about work, you always seemed to find a way to bring her up."

Elsa laughed, now. "Are you serious? Oh, no, I hadn't realized that I was such a starry-eyed girl about it."

Anna laughed, now, too, and it was a blessed sound, warming Elsa to the core. "Oh, you were _bad,_ she said. Worse than a teenager, in some ways. But I'm so happy that it worked out. You're both good for each other. Really good. You're a strong pair."

Elsa smiled. "Thank you, Anna. And I'm sorry."

Anna's smile faded, ever so slightly. "I think this is going to help me to heal," she said. "Seeing the love that you two share. Don't ever think that I'm jealous of what you have."

They stood in amicable silence for a minute, maybe two. Finally, Elsa spoke.

"Hello mother, and father. It's…" she rubbed at her arm, feeling shame rising in her neck. "It's been a few months. Since the anniversary, I think."

Anna squeezed her arm, encouraging her to go on.

"I'm… well, I'm getting married," she said, laughing nervously. "Finally. I know that if you two were alive, you probably would have tried to get me wedded off for political expediency years ago."

She realized that this wasn't the tone that she wanted to take with them, and she forced the bitterness out of her voice. Elsa had a complicated relationship with her parents, or rather the memory of them. She could remember the gentle moments, and the love, but it was so hard to outweigh the cold of closed doors. They'd made her a prisoner in their home and they'd forced her to suppress the storm inside of her. So much of her imprisonment had made her into the woman that she'd become, and not in a way that she was proud of. Elsa felt less guilty when she told herself that the Great Frost had been Agnarr's fault, not hers.

But of course, the past wasn't fit to be painted in black and white, and Anna was often shocked by the way that Elsa remembered their parents. Anna still mourned them, still brought flowers to their gravesite every month. She spent even more time out here, now that her husband was laid to rest not fifteen feet from them. So Elsa took a deep breath, and started again.

"I know that, if you were here, you'd be happy," she said. "I remember, mother, that you once told me that you would make sure I had a wedding like something out of an old knight's tale. We aren't having the biggest celebration, but I'll do my best to make some memories that will last, anyway."

They _couldn't_ have a massive celebration of the wedding, not really. In fact, Elsa and Odette were still hiding their relationship, to some extent. The kingdoms of Europe lining up to become part of the Unified Empire might reconsider their decision if they learned that the Empress's sister and probably its most important spellcaster were living in sin together. Even if Anna took the steps to change the law and make the union legal, like Elsa had fought to do when she'd been Queen of Arendelle, she and Odette would still be wed in contempt of the church, which was an enemy they could not afford to make while they brought Europe underneath their banner.

So it was a going to be a private party, and a small one.

"I… I know that sometimes, it might seem like I only remember the bad things," Elsa said. "And for that, I'm sorry. I really do miss you both. Mother, there are days when it would be… nice, to have you there to tell me that things are going to be all right. And father, I know that I might have ruled in a different way than you did, but not a day passes where I don't wish I had your guidance."

Elsa looked up for a moment before continuing. The sun was just beginning to peek its way out from behind the clouds.

"I used to think that there wasn't anything after this," Elsa said. "I used to think that the idea that you'd be up there watching me was ridiculous. But… but, well, I've seen some things over the last year that make me wonder how sure I should be about that. Maybe you guys really are up there, keeping an eye out for me. I… I take comfort in that, actually."

Elsa lapsed into silence again. She glanced down at Anna and spoke softly. "Do you have anything to add?"

She smiled. "Nothing at all. Now come on. You've got a wedding to get to."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

* * *

Saint Adelaide Cathedral,

Arendelle

December 25th, 1843

Elsa hadn't ever envisioned getting married in a church.

Then again, she hadn't really envisioned getting married at all, when she was younger. It had always been hard to imagine herself doing things that other normal people did, during her imprisonment. Though Agnarr would always assure her that it would last only until she was able to control her powers, Elsa had always secretly harbored a fear that she would be locked away from the world forever.

Those days seemed so far away it was as if they belonged to someone else entirely, as Elsa stood behind a set of doors inside a small, apsidal church built into the Saint Adelaide. Elsa had not known before today that it was commonplace for hulking cathedrals like this one to hold smaller centers of worship inside, each dedicated to a particular and more specific cause. This little church's altar doubled as a tomb for the ancient remains of Saint Adelaide, the probably apocryphal figure who had driven the plague out of Arendelle during the tenth century.

It was considered the most sacred place in the entire cathedral, which of course made Elsa feel uncomfortable with what they were about to do in it. She glanced to her side, where Hans stood looking sleek and ravishing in a new suit. His eyes strayed to meet hers and he grinned.

"You look like you're about to throw up."

"Well," Elsa said, "I lost my virginity before marriage, and I'm marrying someone else who lost their virginity before marriage, and it turns out that we're the same sex. We might want to watch out for lightning while we're getting through the service."

Hans turned back to face the doors and smiled again. "You actually _met_ God, Elsa, and He didn't seem to be too displeased with the way you were handling things."

Elsa frowned. "Sometimes, I wonder if that entire thing was just a crazy vision. I've had more than my fair share."

"But He warned you about the tsunami that was going to crash into Arendelle, didn't He?"

Elsa frowned, uncomfortable. "That could just have been a coincidence."

"Also, isn't He dead now?" Hans asked, voice growing more serious. "When Everdark was on its campaign in the Sea of Stars, didn't you say that He got struck down?"

Elsa scratched at the back of her neck. There was a seam in the lace at the back of her dress, and it was itchy. "Well, yes, but I'm inclined to think that it isn't so easy to kill a god. I suspect that destroying the deity that we knew as God's body wouldn't actually extinguish its power completely. If there wasn't anything out there holding Everdark back, I imagine that we'd all be gone by now."

Elsa watched Hans's face for a moment. It remained mostly impassive, but she was used to his stoic exterior by now, and she could see something in his eyes. "I hope that's true, Elsa."

He was probably thinking about Hades, she realized. Hans had come to love him as a friend and something of a father figure, and he had been lost to the fight against Everdark in the late summer. Technically, the hand that had smote him was Elsa's, even, but she'd been dominated by the God of Darkness at the time. It was a testament to the strength of their friendship that Hans had been willing to forgive her so readily.

Elsa felt a sudden surge of affection for the man standing beside her.

"Thank you," she said, suddenly, feeling tears welling in her eyes. It was tradition for the father of the bride to give her up on her marriage day, but she had none. Montaigne was probably the closest person she had left to a father, but they'd decided that he would give away Odette. "Thank you for being here, for me."

Hans laughed, lightly. "It's really nothing, Elsa. Just a silly tradition."

"Not just today," she said, shaking her head. "You… you've always been here for me, ever since we met again in Corona. I know you're aware that I hold you very dear, but I don't think that I've ever told you that I think you have a very noble heart."

Hans's mouth opened, slightly. He blinked, and he looked profoundly moved by her words. "Thank you, too, Elsa. I… I never pictured myself here. I mean, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I would be standing her beside you, doing this. Never would I expect that it would feel _right._ "

The pair stood there in companionable silence for several seconds. Finally, Elsa let out a noise that was a cross between a laugh and a sob, and then Hans laughed too and reached up to wipe at one of his eyes. They both heard the sound of a organ begin to play in the chamber beyond.

"Well, Elsa, are you ready to go?" Hans asked, extending an arm.

"Let's wait just a minute," Elsa said, her eyes shining as she tried to imagine what Odette would look like, waiting for her on the other side of the door. "Good things come to those who wait."

Montaigne and Odette reached the altar first. Odette smiled as the elderly master servant stepped back from her, gently nodding and taking his place by her side. Then she turned her gaze to Prior Feldon, the young man who had stepped up to take the responsibilities that had been left behind by Bishop Clement's death. His hair was prematurely greyed at the sideburns, but his face was young, and his eyes were bright. Montaigne had asked him personally to officiate the wedding, and he'd been amenable to it, perhaps because he too felt that the royal family was in need of a happy love story right now.

The organist began to play, a traditional Arendane song that Odette did not recognize, and after a few moments a small choir raised their voices and added to the music. Aside from Prior Feldon and the musicians, there were only a handful of people in attendance to view the ceremony. There was Hans and Montaigne, of course, and Anna and Kariena Tae, as well as Queen Arianna and Princess Rapunzel. There was Eugene Fitzherbert and Charles Vander, as well as the two other men who had once made up the Magistrate's Council, Shermish Halloway and Findlay Morrison.

Odette expected that Halloway and Morrison were mostly invited on principle. She'd liked them well enough when they'd been coworkers, but they weren't exactly the closest of friends. Odette was snapped out of her thoughts as the doors at the far end of the room opened, and Hans and Elsa stepped over the threshold.

xxx

Odette's eyes widened when she saw her wife-to-be. Elsa's dress was not white, and it wasn't blue, but it was something in between, a beautiful color as clear as the morning sky. It had a tight bodice and slightly plumed shoulders with little slits in them gilt at the edges with silver, and she wore gloves of the same color that reached past her elbows. From the waist down the main body of the dress was sleek, but there were several layers of gossamer coats that created a ten-foot silky train behind herself. She wore a circlet, too, a simple band of brilliant white set around her head that Odette knew was probably made of ice.

Her hair was braided, the way she used to do it so often, but it was bound up around her head in a style that was at once mature and fetching. She was radiant, literally glowing with a soft, warm light, the way she always did now that she was technically an immortal being, but today it looked even more spectacular. It accentuated her brilliance. Odette found that she hadn't breathed in several seconds, and she was intimately reminded of the way that she had once described Elsa to Montaigne: _she's like a force of nature._

A brilliant, beautiful creation that was more perfect than anything else Odette had ever known.

Elsa and Hans began to walk down the aisle, and the eyes of everyone in the room followed them as they walked the red carpet that cut the pews in two. It was sprinkled with flower petals, a feat that had not been easy to accomplish in December, but in Corona there were still a few more orchards in bloom, and delicate things like that were easier to transport now with the portals.

Odette realized that she was thinking academic nonsense to herself and forced her mind back into the moment. She was so happy.

Elsa and Hans reached the altar, and they each took their places. Odette and Elsa gazed into each other's shining eyes for a few seconds, and then the music came to a stop. Odette realized that she was crying. She felt silly, but she reached up and wiped at her eyes.

"Dearly beloved," Prior Feldon began, his voice sounding faraway to Odette's ears, "we are gathered here today to celebrate a royal union. A few times in our lives, we are blessed to know true love. The love between parent and child, that between kin –"

Elsa turned briefly to lay eyes upon her sister. Anna returned the gaze, tears streaking her smiling face.

"- and, we hope for each us, the love between ourselves and a soulmate. These are truly beautiful connections, the bonds that bind together our lives. Some say that it is our intelligence that sets man apart from beast, but I would argue that even more important is the depth of love that the human heart can hold. These beloved ones make us stronger, guiding us through dark nights and joining us when we celebrate sunny days.

"In these uncertain days, our loved ones are even more precious to us, because they remain our link to happier times. They remind us that no matter how great the cost, we must continue to defend what we hold dear, and they also serve to tempt us with a vision of how great the depth of our reward may be."

Prior Feldon looked around the small gathering and smiled. "I am not here today to offer you a religious sermon. I once serviced the small chapel in the royal palace of Arendelle, and I _do_ recall that one of the most important people in this room didn't often attend our services."

His voice was still kind, full of jest, and there were chuckles. Elsa smiled crookedly.

"What I _can_ speak to is the great art created when two people who are truly in love are brought together. We learn that, in abject defiance of physics, these two people become more than the sum of their parts. We see in Elsa Siguror and Odette Novare exactly this. Apart, each of them is indispensable to us. Elsa as our Protector, the constant shepherd to our wayward flock. A light in dark places, and a guide when we need it most. Odette as the loving hand, who mends our wounds and brings us closer together. She too is a scholarly mind, priceless in her ability to tease out the lessons taught by those who have tread our path before.

"So what, then, can stand in our way when they are brought together, I ask? The capability for greatness is not just a possibility for this union; it is a _given._ These two, I think, will give us reason to hope, in the coming months. And for that, we are in their debt."

Odette felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. The way that Prior Feldon spoke of them… he made it sound easy, as if winning the day against Everdark would be no small task with Elsa and Odette on their side. Odette wasn't so sure about that. She felt relieved when he came to the traditional wedding vows.

"Elsa Siguror, once Queen of Arendelle, now sister to the Empress and Protector of the Empire, do you take Odette Marie Novare, to have and to hold dear, in times bleak and merry, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Elsa seemed to gulp before replying, as if she was afraid that she might get the words wrong in her excitement.

"I do," she said.

Prior Feldon turned to Odette. "And Odette Marie Novare, once advisor to the same queen, and now legendary witch, do you swear to honor Elsa Siguror as your bride at all times, and always?"

"I do," Odette said. The words tingled on her lips as she spoke them, and she involuntarily felt a surge of magic within her.

Suddenly, she could see the lifelines in the room, little gossamer strands that bound souls to the earth, and souls together. She could see the bonds between herself and Elsa, both of them strong, one from her to Elsa, and one the other way.

"Then by the power vested in me by God Almighty, I pronounce the two of you wed. You may now seal the pact with a kiss."

Odette closed her eyes and leaned into Elsa's lips, and they kissed. It was a powerful kiss, brilliant and intense, and passionate. The assembled friends and family began to applaud for them. Odette realized that she could no longer hold back, and she began to cry, tears streaking from her face and starting to ruin the makeup that had taken so long to get perfect this morning.

When they broke away, Odette saw, with no small amount of surprise, that the bond between her and Elsa had changed. There was only one now, a stronger bond than she had ever seen before, pulsating with a warm glow. It was… it was almost as if their souls had been brought together. Not quite one and the same, but not really separate, anymore.

For some reason that made Odette indescribably happy.

xxx

They made love four times that night.

At last, in the wee hours of the morning, Odette lay with her head against Elsa's breast, taking comfort in the smooth, rhythmic way that it went up and down with her breath. For a time, they had been able to forget the pain and the fear that awaited them in the world. For a time, there was only the two of them, and that was the way Odette wanted it to be.

"I still remember the day we first met," Odette said abruptly. "Of course, I knew who you were long before then – I mean, I hero-worshipped you for a while there."

Elsa laughed lightly.

"No, I really, really did," Odette said. "And anyway, I remember that I just couldn't even put two words together, I was stuttering so badly. I was amazed that you were even willing to give me the time of day, let alone that you wanted to hire me."

Elsa smiled. "You know, sometimes it really makes you think, the way the little things add up to shape our lives. If Namar Sadden hadn't been trying to get my crown, he never would have poisoned a drink at that party. If Montaigne hadn't been the server, then Agatha Merke wouldn't have accidentally received the poisoned glass and passed away young. If Montaigne hadn't been connected with Bishop Clement, then you wouldn't have ever been recommended to me for the job. So many tiny little things had to happen for us to meet."

"Fate conspired to bring us together," Odette said, smiling. She wasn't sure if she really believed that. Her forehead creased momentarily as she wondered how her life would be different if she hadn't ever met the Queen of Arendelle. Would she be just another one of the nameless masses, terrified spectators to the violence that was threatening their world? Or would she have eventually accepted her powers and sought out a position where she could use them?

She liked to think that she'd have been brave.

"When this is all over," Odette said, "I'd like to go somewhere romantic with you. Paris, maybe. I've always wanted to go."

Elsa nodded, her chin bobbing lightly against Odette's head. "Paris. I'd like to see it too, actually. As a tourist, I mean. I've been a few times, but it was always just as part of my father's diplomatic entourage. Before I… you know, before I got locked away, he'd take me with him places. I think he figured that I'd pick up a thing or two about ruling secondhand. But yeah. It's a promise."

Odette smiled, and they lay there contentedly for a few moments. Then Odette's brow creased. "Do you think that day will come? When this is all over?"

Elsa was silent for a while, and when she finally answered, her voice was a whisper. "I hope it does."

The End

of Union


End file.
